Dems sell aviation bill as jobs boon

If it wasn’t clear before, Senate Democrats wanted to leave no doubt Monday: The aviation bill they’re tackling this week is all about jobs – 280,000 to be exact.

“If there was ever a jobs bill, this is it,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on a conference call.

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“It’s a big jobs creator,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) chimed in.

“Aviation jobs are big business in America,” added Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who was named the new chairwoman of the Commerce Committee’s aviation sub-committee on Monday. “They employ a lot of people and have a lot to do with the efficiency of the economy.”

The Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, which passed the Senate 93 to 0 last March but got stalled over several minor issues, hasn’t always been thought of as a jobs bill – and Republican skeptics are quick to point that out.

“It’s not a jobs bill,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) when asked by POLITICO about Democrats’ portrayal of the legislation. “It’s a bill that helps both maintain and improve our federal aviation system in this country. I know jobs is the big thing these days, but don’t try to sell legislation that really has some other impetus or reason for being as a jobs bill if it’s really not.”

The bill, introduced by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), authorizes about $35 billion in spending and would modernize the nation’s air traffic control system, replacing the outdated radar-based system with a GPS-based one. It also includes a number of airline safety improvements and a “passengers bill of rights” that allows passengers to exit if they are delayed on a plane more than three hours.

But with President Barack Obama calling in his State of the Union address for job creation though repairing aging roads, bridges and other construction projects, Democratic leaders have been highlighting that $8.1 billion in the bill would pay for upgrades to runways, taxiways and other airport infrastructure.

“On the Senate floor this week, we will pick up where the president left off in his speech,” said Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate.

Using a phrase the Obama administration employed during the debate over economic stimulus spending, Reid said the airport construction funds would help “create or save” 280,000 jobs. It was unclear how many of those would be new jobs, and in various statements to the press Democrats used the words “protect,” “save” and “support” when describing how the money would impact jobs.

Chip Barclay, president of trade group American Association of Airport Executives, said 90,000 of those would be direct construction and supplier jobs, while 190,000 would be support positions, like workers at a steel company providing materials for an airport fence.

Barclay said that calculation was based off a Boston University study which found that every $1 billion of spending on infrastructure projects creates 35,000 jobs, provided that local agencies match 20 percent.

Some issues that caused “turbulence” when the House and Senate tried to reconcile different versions of the authorization bill last year, including landing slots for long-distance flights at Reagan National Airport, will not be included in this year’s bill.